Monday, December 17, 2012

Week 51 - Exercising Friendly Flexibility

It was an odd week. I don’t know if I should blame holiday stress or what. Let’s just say I’m SO ready for break.

One odd incident revolved around a hat I’d knitted for a friend. I gave it to him a month ago when it started getting cold but it was still on his desk, right where he’d put it a month ago. He mentioned that he was thinking about it so I dared to suggest that he try it on. OMG! He went ballistic and said I was tried to control his life. Really? By asking him to try on a hat? I walked away, hoping the hat wouldn’t end up in the trash. That was Monday.

Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon. The phone rang at 4:00 and it was the trainer, who had been out for a couple of weeks after tonsil surgery. Well, she had a training scheduled for the next morning and wasn’t feeling up to doing it so asked me to do it for her. Not the person who used to teach it but me. I’ve never even been to that training, never mind taught it. And I didn’t have the computer access to teach it either. And when I asked the woman who used to train it for help, the best I got was that she would sign on for me so I’d have the access. Really? I was supposed to stand up for an hour and a half and wing it? Since there was an online version of the same class that people could take on their own and only 3 people were signed up, I called them and told them to do that instead. Done! I was still shocked that there was any expectation that I’d have to teach that and was fine with how it turned out.

Then Wednesday happened. The boss got back from a conference and word trickled down that I’d over reacted and should have taught the class. I was NOT HAPPY! Since there was nothing I could do about that, I went down to the Canfield potluck for lunch, which was a total dud. Then I’m not sure if it was something I ate or what but my intestines were in an uproar. Their gurgling was so loud I could hear it and I was pretty uncomfortable. By 4:00, I was done with it all. Although there had been pleasant spots in the week (knitting on Monday, lunch with Dodie, swimming) I was over it. I headed home early, happily bailing on a 12/12/12 dinner after work. What a good decision since that was the turning point of a previously bad week.

My intestines calmed down and I sat down to wrap my white elephant gift for the next day’s office Christmas party. From there I just kept going and by 7:00, I had wrapped all the stocking stuffers for my sisters (that’s a grocery bag full each for those who don’t know the Fenton family stocking tradition) and had tuna casserole hot out of the oven to eat during Survivor. Then I boxes them up and had them ready to ship. My goal had been to ship them Saturday so now I was ahead of the game. Yay!

I headed to work Thursday with the boxes and mailed them at The Union later that morning. I even scoredat the clearance rack while I was waiting (the PO is in the bookstore.) See, things were turning around! The office party was fun and I got 2 lampshades, which I can actually use, in the white elephant exchange. On top of all this domestic productivity, I was getting lots of stuff done at work too, crossing things off my list left and right. Our Business & Finance Winter Festival was supposed to be from 3:00-5:00 and since water aerobics was right across the street at 5:15, Nora, Cheryl and I headed over at 4:30. Well, they were packing everything up and literally took the tablecloth off the table we were sitting at not eating because the food was already put away. Sheesh! Water aerobics was fun. It was the last class of our favorite instructor and she did the 12 Days of Water Aerobics (that’s why she’s our favorite – lots of planning and fun.) Then it was home for more knitting. With the packages mailed, finishing my last 2 knitting projects was my main goal. I had a busy weekend ahead so every minute would count.

I put my inside tree up on Friday night since I like to do the tree in the dark. I had bought colored lights because they were out of white and even though I found my lights, I decided to shake it up and do colored lights and white garland. The new look is fun and my tree smells great. What a nice start to the weekend.

Now that I didn’t have to get to the post office Saturday morning, my morning was my own. I had to gather a set of Corelle from the garage and get it cleaned up but that was all. I don’t know why I got off my butt early and got busy but it was a darn good thing. I was waiting for a call from Connie because she and Gordy were going to be in York, NE (75 miles from Wahoo) so I was going to meet them there in the afternoon, have some dinner and then crash Gordy’s show (a private party) under the guise of helping sell CD’s. Well the Corelle was already washed up and in the dishwasher for a 2nd pass and I was showered when the phone rang just before noon. They were 20 minutes from Wahoo and wanted to go out for lunch. So I threw on clothes and met them at The Wigwam for lunch, getting an earlier start on the day than I’d planned. They stopped briefly at my house and then headed to York.

Since we’d discussed meeting at 6:00, I figured I had the afternoon to knit so I settled in and called both of my sisters. I had just hung up when Connie called to say they were there. Connie wanted me to come sooner so I finished my tea and left the house ~3:30. While Gordy went to the venue for a sound check, Connie and I headed out for a snack. We sat in the bar of a big local restaurant – Chances R – and had nachos. We got to the event and everyone was in cocktail dresses and suits. I was wearing jeans and sneakers. Oh well. Gordy’s show was fun but they only had him do 25 minutes. We sold 1 CD and then packed up. I drove home and was there by 10:30. Not bad and it was worth it to spend time with Connie.

Susan, who was in Lincoln from Kansas, was coming on Sunday after church. So I got up and made a double batch of corn chowder (mostly for a party on Tuesday but we could skim a couple of bowls) and corn muffins. When it was 12:20 and still no Susan, I called her and she said “I thought I was coming for supper.” After church is supper? Oh well, I ate a bowl of chowder figuring I’d cook something else for supper. I had phone calls to make plans for next weekend in RI so started laundry and got on the phone. Susan was going to call when she left Lincoln. Well, when she did call, she was within blocks of my house. Crap! No cooking would be going on now. We visited and I had a sandwich while she had chowder. When she left, I sat down to the season finale of Survivor and more wrapping. By the time it was done, all of Carolyn’s stocking stuffers were wrapped and most of the small gifts for friends.

What a busy but productive week. The good things outweighed the odd and I finished so many things on my holiday to do list ahead of schedule. Since I’d be flying east Friday after work, I was happy to get so much done. I’ll be in Rhode Island next week so will probably be late blogging. I hope you have a happy and productive week coming up and a Merry Christmas.